Humor: Separated at birth?

Woohoo!! I'm finally done with the exams, and i'm back with some funny stuff to share with you... so have fun!

From a post titled "separated at birth" via archinect.com (a really noteworthy forum) i couldn't agree more with them, all of these architects and "things?" look alike. And to the one who voted "No, i hate it" in the poll, i guess architecture can be fun... sometimes, right?

Daniel Libeskind | Lee Evans (There's Something About Mary)

Frank Gehry | The old man from UP

I. M. Pei | Milhouse (The Simpsons)

Jean Nouvel | Dr. Evil (Austin Powers)

Le Corbusier | Jean Luc Picard (Star Trek)

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | Mr. Magoo

Norman Foster | Popeye

Philip Johnson | Toy cleaner (Toy story)

Stanley Tigerman | Ewok (Star Wars)

Zaha Hadid | Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

Haha!! this is hilarious! actually this made my day.. especially Zaha Hadid's one.

enjoy...

Read the rest of this post »

Loving Architecture...

They say, Architecture is a life-long profession, once you got involved in the business you never go out.

I say as a student that's true. Since the day we got admitted in the major, our lives have embraced Architecture, we have coped with its life style and with the mission we hold to do. We even have become addicted to Architecture!

But I say - as a lover of Architecture – our passion to architecture is enough to be the reason to get us working. This passion is not shared only by students, but also by those who have been giving their souls to their love for decades.

Architects are those who don't give up, don't quit, and don't retire.
They even broaden up new ways for themselves to keep designing. The flame of designing will never put out for them until they pass away.

"I want to spend whatever time I have left working" said the Chinese-American architect IM Pei.
IM Pie was born in 1917, now he is 92 years old, although he retired from his
firm but still engaged in his sons'.

In 2006 he designed the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC.
He also designed in 2007 the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar.
And most recently he designed Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, California

He is known for his notable designs of the Louvre Pyramid and China bank tower.

Another legend of architecture considered the greatest living architect on the planet, the 102-year-old Oscar Niemeyer, was born in 1907 in Brazil.

"Nobody can fault Mr. Niemeyer for his desire to keep working; that his enthusiasm is undimmed at the age of 100 is cause for awe." – The New York Times at Oscar Niemeyer's 100th birthday.

Oscar Niemeyer is a paradigm of inspiration and devotion to architecture; he is a role model as an architecture lover. Age is not a matter to him to keep on working and designing, he even got married for the second time at the age of 99 from his longtime assistant Vera Lúcia Cabreira.

His latest project Oscar Niemeyer International Cultural Centre is currently under construction in Spain, along to other sculptural works in Brazil.

These two architects in their late age along to many others know exactly how to work hard, how to be devoted and mostly, how to love architecture.


Peace,,,

Read the rest of this post »

The Architecture of Failure...

I have been recently thinking about how weak students pass
their design in our department.

And I have been told that there's a go-between of some sort
who really pushes them up and gives
them the opportunity to go for the next level.
even though that some of those students really don't know how to
employ a stair in a space.
and this is really something not professional at all!

so what would it be like to graduate such students??

I guess that the answer is pretty much spoken in this image,,,

I don't have harsh feelings for anyone at all
but really this particular thing is not fair.


and it drives me crazy to see my dearest friends failing their designs
because they were much of scapegoats
instead of those who climb on their backs to reach,
but end up designing crap like above !

I'll leave you with some more of the Architecture of Failure...

* looool..... I don't know how two butts will fit here??!

Read the rest of this post »

A reason to wear glasses

Oogmerk Opticians advertisements via Ads of the World (a very interesting website). Another reason to get yourself a pair of glasses? Get the respect you deserve. these ads show how people view you differently without and with glasses.


* yea... i modified the last one a little bit.

These ads are so true but a bit depreciating, agree? I don't wear glasses which means I’m not knowledgeable unless… unless I'm wearing these:

Yes, Le Corbusier’s trademark, one of the best-known and appreciated architects of the twentieth century.

OK... I'll be off for a while, will be back after the exams, wish me luck...

Read the rest of this post »

I like it: Hanging stair

The Hanging Stair is a great design by Canadian architects Blencoe Levine Associates that solves the common problem with stair treads when renovating. So I guess that’s pretty convenient when you run into roadblocks in the middle of your house project. Although this is a good use of space, and it’s a modern look, I would question the strength of it over time.

We often use the phrase "tread lightly"; Anglo-Canadian architects Christopher Blencoe and Judith Levine take it literally with these treads that don't even touch. It is an interesting solution to a standard problem in renovations and additions.

The idea is really great but too bad I won't be using it home as my ninja cat will have a hard time reaching upstairs...

Hanging Stair by Blencowe Levine

Read the rest of this post »

De Tails...or...The Tails??

As being architecture students, I could guess that everyone might really be concerned about aesthetics in their careers, at least I am one of those.

Whether this part of your career is intertwined with your daily life habits or your daily life habits have an effect that makes your career just better… for me this is how serious people thrive and become creative. By those “habits” I mean the way we actually care and be devoted to our work.

Most of the students are finely creative, and indeed they are very dedicated in their work , but the thing that I notice frequently in their presentations is the lack of the touch of perfection.

This touch is just something that is neglected by so many, they even consider it trivial enough to ignore its existence in architecture while it is an important issue to consider. They fail to notice the necessity of details.

Details are just what architecture is about, an architect must be aware of how to create an architecture carefully designed, and must be aware of every detail in the project, this includes pretty much the language being used to describe the project. Whether it is in Arabic or in English, each student must be knowledgeable of the essences of each language used in the presentation, and for what I see that English is being raped, how is this happening?

Well, students here consider themselves architects already and by this ignorant ego of theirs, they have drifted by thinking they are perfect, but when coming to see their perfection you get a shock to find that such an important term in our career, widely used and students dream of every day, has been used in a presentation misspelled!

“Concept” is not a common spelling error word and it is easy to be memorized since it’s very familiar to architects, so how on earth perfect architects don’t know how to spell “concept” correctly??! and how on earth perfect architects don’t know how to distinguish between “ Special” and “Spatial” ??!

These errors are driving me crazy, because they are not common and the terms we use in architecture are pretty much easy to learn unlike Medicine terms, I am even surprised to see “Architecture” misspelled!

Is it that hard for students to learn how to spell words? Or is their pride too hard to be broken to ask for help? In both ways learning and asking for help is not a shame and what would be shameful is to be a 3rd-year-student who doesn’t know how to spell a familiar word correctly as much as a 3rd-year-student who doesn’t know how to draw a section! And it would be better now to do mistakes and get them corrected, because we are here to learn anyway, and this process of learning is very effective in memorizing words and spelling them correctly so in future errors can be avoided and thus perfection can be seen clearly.

peace,,,

Read the rest of this post »

Ingenious: Huge valley bridge

Look at that bridge... I almost called it photoshopped. The Siduhe Grand Bridge has been in construction for over 4 years and stands 2,132 feet above the ground below. Holy shit! One of the initial problems with building the bridge was how to get the 3,200ft long cables across the valley. The answer? Attach them to rockets and blast them across.

so you've erected the enormous towers on each side of the deep valley, deeper than any valley previously bridged. how do you get a pilot cable from one tower to the next? previous solutions have included: attaching the cable to a kite and flying it over (e.g. niagara falls suspension bridge), carrying one end by helicopter (e.g. akashi kaikyo bridge) and floating one end on a boat (e.g. brooklyn bridge). the brains behind the siduhe bridge decided to ignore all those options and break another record instead. they attached the 3200ft cables to rockets and accurately fired them over the valley, becoming the first people to do so.

Hell yes! Ah, ingenuity at its finest. And also, rocket power. PSSSSSHOOOW! but seriously isn't Abdoun Bridge better looking than this?... yeah i know... "who cares?".


Chinese bridge builders use rockets to shoot 3,200-foot cables across a valley
and
rockets help build bridge higher than empire state building

Oh... and before i end this I'd like to welcome the newest Architecture Lover Ameer Masoud to his blog... Welcome Ameer!!

Read the rest of this post »

I like it: Paper Art

German artist Simon Schubert folds pieces of paper into beautiful pictures of, uh, stairwells. Each piece takes about a week's worth of work and can sell for up to $6,000!

"Most of the people who see the work are surprised that the pictures are created by folding paper, they don't believe it when I tell them.
"Many of them think I've used paint or pencil to create the affect of light and shade. But when they realise the pictures are actually folded they are quite impressed."

Impressive, Simon, it's too bad I'm about to flood the market with child-folded ripoffs! Isn't that right, kids? Kids? *dink dink dittle dee dink dittle dee dink dee dink dee dink * DAMN YOU, ICE CREAM VAN!

Here is more of his work, click on them for full size.

Paper Art by Simon Schubert

Read the rest of this post »

The Alphabet of the world

I guess every architect knows Google Maps as its very useful in our career especially in studying urban planning and taking other countries as case studies by using the street view to envision the area as if you were there.

Rhett Dashwood, a creative director from Melbourne, Australia, searches Google Maps for geographic letters when he's not busy directing creatively. Or playing with one of those swinging metallic ball thingies.

Over the course of several months beginning October 2008 to April 2009 I've spent some of my spare time between commercial projects searching Google Maps hoping to discover land formations or buildings resembling letter forms. These are the results of my findings limited within the state of Victoria, Australia.

As you can see, I used the letters to spell 'Loving Architecture', but you could use them to write a really cool digital ransom note

PUT OnE MiLLiOn DOLLARS In A PAPER BAg AnD WAiT FOR YOuR cELL TO RiNG...
LOvE.
nOT KARiM

And I think it's pretty cool all the letters came from Victoria. I'm gonna see if I can make a set using my own location! Kidding, I don't have time for that shit.

Check out the whole alphabet here.

And lastly Geogreeting, is a recently created site which lets you create messages and e-cards using incidental Google Maps lettering.

Read the rest of this post »

I like it: Full size LEGO house

James May presenter of TOP Gear is attempting to build a full size, two story house in Surrey entirely out of LEGO bricks.

As part of his BBC series James May’s Toy Stories, he plans to build a two-storey house in the middle of Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking.
On Friday, more than three million Lego bricks were delivered to the vineyard in preparation for the task.
May will be hosting a building day on Saturday, August 1, when members of the public can help him with the challenge.

I would live there. And by live there I mean come home tired, pass out on the floor, and wake up with LEGO marks all over my face.

Lego house attempt for James May's Toy Stories

Read the rest of this post »

You're doing it wrong!: Egyption architecture

I knew when I saw this picture it was too good to be true. And sadly, it is. I had to do some interweb spelunking but, finally, got to the bottom of its origin. Touted around the net as a "building" in Egypt (arguably my favorite country). So yeah, shit. Still an awesome building though, I'd totally live there.

Well.. the great architect Mies van der Rohe once said “Less is more.” but i'm sure he did not mean it this way. I'm imagining living there, and i'm sitting in the room at the end of the building (whatever it was) and a friend of mine was in the bathroom that is in the middle of the apartment, and as there is no room for it to be on one side, only to get to the other end i'll have to go through the bathroom, and the doorbell rang, and i couldn't reach it until my friend finishes his job... and the door is open and the guest is like "what were you doin?" where i answer "my friend was in the bathroom...".

But to tell the truth, i was shocked, or maybe something else... well all i can think of is this...

This is a video of a building demolition in Turkey (my 2nd favorite country..) gone horribly wrong. Now I'm not saying I could have done better, but I totally could have. Youtube

Read the rest of this post »